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Aquesta revisió de literatura es du a terme amb l’objectiu de valorar el desenvolupament d’un sistema electrònic integrat al teixit per a la detecció precoç de possibles lesions al peu causades per l’evolució de la diabetis, ajudar a prevenir l’aparició d’úlceres i, conseqüentment, contribuir en la millora de la vida del pacient. Per fer-ho, es proposa treballar sobre el control de la pressió plantar, ja que aquesta es presenta com la principal causa de l’aparició de les úlceres. També es proposa treballar pel mesurament de canvis de temperatura a la superfície de la pell, ja que és un símptoma previ a l’aparició de la lesió, així com en la millora de la col·locació dels elements sensitius. Un sistema de monitorització d’aquests dos elements pot aportar informació que ajudi al personal mèdic a prendre decisions per a la prevenció i el tractament del pacient. Aquest document inclou un resum de les afectacions i problemàtiques associades al peu diabètic, una revisió de dispositius i estudis existents, i una proposta de recerca per a desenvolupar un dispositiu tèxtil sensitiu

Este proyecto pretende establecer un sistema de control, basado en sensores electrónicos, en el interior de las tres grandes pirámides de Guiza que forman la necrópolis homónima. Capacitar a la última maravilla del mundo antiguo con un sistema que ofrezca un registro monitoreado de las variables ambientales como son la humedad, la concentración de dióxido de carbono y temperatura, que pueden llegar a ser perjudiciales para el patrimonio cultural que estas aguardan. En primer lugar, se mencionan las diferentes organizaciones internacionales, así como los tratados y normas oficiales encargadas de proteger el patrimonio histórico. Seguidamente, se presenta un análisis de la historia de las pirámides de Guiza haciendo un especial foco en la evolución del turismo a lo largo de estos diferentes periodos históricos. Una vez analizado el aspecto histórico y social de las pirámides de Guiza, se abordan los diversos desafíos ambientales que enfrentan en la actualidad. Para ello, se hace acopio de los estudios más recientes y que utilicen las técnicas más modernas. Además, se complementan las conclusiones de estos estudios con explicaciones derivadas de datos previamente tratados, como son la geografía de la meseta o el impacto laboral en el estado de las pirámides debido a revueltas sociales. Finalmente, se ofrece una solución específica, basada en sensores electrónicos, para cada impacto ambiental, teniendo en cuenta sus características. Todos los apartados convergen en el diseño de un sistema de monitoreo totalmente funcional y viable para su implementación., Aquest projecte pretén establir un sistema de control, basat en sensors electrònics, a l'interior de les tres grans piràmides de Guiza que formen la necròpolis homònima. Capacitar l'última meravella del món antic amb un sistema que ofereixi un registre monitoritzat de les variables ambientals com són la humitat, la concentració de diòxid de carboni i temperatura, que poden arribar a ser perjudicials per al patrimoni cultural que aquestes guardeixen. En primer lloc, es mencionen les diferents organitzacions internacionals, així com els tractats i normes oficials encarregades de protegir el patrimoni històric. Seguidament, es presenta una anàlisi de la història de les piràmides de Guiza fent un especial focus en l'evolució del turisme al llarg d'aquests diferents períodes històrics. Un cop analitzat l'aspecte històric i social de les piràmides de Guiza, s'aborden els diversos reptes ambientals que enfronten en l'actualitat. Per fer-ho, s'agafen els estudis més recents i que utilitzin les tècniques més modernes. A més, es complementen les conclusions d'aquests estudis amb explicacions derivades de dades prèviament tractades, com són la geografia de la meseta o l'impacte laboral en l'estat de les piràmides a causa de revoltes socials. Finalment, s'ofereix una solució específica, basada en sensors electrònics, per a cada impacte ambiental, tenint en compte les seves característiques. Tots els apartats convergeixen en el disseny d'un sistema de monitoratge totalment funcional i viable per a la seva implementació., This project aims to establish a control system, based on electronic sensors, within the interior of the three great pyramids of Giza that form the homonymous necropolis. Empowering the last wonder of the ancient world with a system that provides a monitored record of environmental variables such as humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, and temperature, which can potentially be harmful to the cultural heritage they safeguard. Firstly, various international organizations, as well as treaties and official standards responsible for protecting historical heritage, are mentioned. Then, an analysis of the history of the Giza pyramids is presented, with a particular focus on the evolution of tourism throughout these different historical periods. Once the historical and social aspects of the Giza pyramids have been analyzed, the various environmental challenges they currently face are addressed. For this, recourse is made to the most recent studies utilizing modern techniques. Furthermore, the conclusions of these studies are complemented with explanations derived from previously processed information, such as the geography of the desert or the labor impact on the state of the pyramids due to social unrest. Finally, a specific solution is offered, based on electronic sensors, for each environmental impact, taking into account their characteristics. All sections converge in the design of a fully functional and viable monitoring system for implementation.

The recent bridge collapses worldwide underscored the perilous state of the global bridge infrastructure. Structural health monitoring (SHM) methods, particularly vibration-based techniques, offer a non-destructive approach to evaluate bridge conditions. However, installing dedicated SHM systems on each of the millions of bridges worldwide is prohibitively expensive. Vehicle scanning methods (VSM) have emerged as a cost-effective alternative, leveraging vehicle-mounted sensors for bridge assessment. Previous VSM research has primarily focused on frequency and mode shape identification through accelerations derived from numerical models. A smaller subset has explored damage detection, either based on modal properties or direct analysis of vehicle accelerations. This study proposes a new damage index that distinguishes itself by establishing a physical connection between the accelerations recorded on the vehicle and the instantaneous curvature of the bridge. This analytical connection provides a straightforward and effective means for damage detection and localization in bridges using VSM, offering the advantage of efficiency and accuracy. As such, the proposed damage index avoids the use of modal properties for damage detection, which are known to be prone to several factors and are not necessarily accurate enough when used in VSM applications, and the over-fitting problems associated with data driven methods. Numerical investigations indicate that the proposed damage index is robust against the potentially adverse effects of several parameters including road roughness, measurement noise, bridge frequency, damage location, variations in boundary conditions, and vehicle speeds., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

The far-infrared Universe provides substantial insights into the formation of stars and planetary systems, the assembly history and evolution of galaxies, the origins of the Universe, and the search for life. Despite its great scientific potential, the far-infrared Universe remains relatively unexplored with the degree of spatial resolution that is available in observations at other wavelengths. Double-Fourier spatial-spectral interferometry provides a promising path to achieve transformative spatial resolution in far-infrared observations. To further study this technique and improve on its technology readiness, we have constructed a far-infrared double-Fourier interferometry testbed that is coupled to a unique detector array of feedback-controlled transition-edge sensor bolometers. To fully understand measurements made with the interferometry testbed and ensure that these are well-calibrated, the detector system must be understood and characterised at a technical level. The detector array itself is a bespoke system with a substantial parameter space that can be optimized for different use-cases which has made this a daunting task. This thesis centres on the experiments I have conducted to characterise, calibrate, and optimise the detector system both in a general sense and in the context of the double-Fourier instrument. Through this investigation of the detector system, I have reduced the spectral noise of the double-Fourier interferometry testbed by 70%. Throughout this work, I review the concepts and theory related to measurements made with Fourier transform spectrometers and double-Fourier interferometers (Chapter 2). Additionally, I discuss transition-edge sensor bolometers and introduce the feedback-controlled bolometer system (Chapter 3). I have included a detailed discussion of my experiments to chracterise the measurement process of the detector array, optimise its noise performance, and tune its response to optical modulation (Chapter 4). I also provide a

© 2024 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0, This study shows the development and analysis of a novel capacity proximity sensor (CPS) based on a sensing layer made up of a mixture of silicon dioxide nanoparticles (SiO2) and sodium chloride (NaCl), and an encapsulation layer based on a commercial acrylic-based varnish. The encapsulated and non-encapsulated proximity sensors were characterised using impedance spectroscopy (IS), revealing that the resulting impedimetric and capacitance responses exhibit different sensitivities and working sensing ranges. The non-encapsulated sensor presents impedimetric and maximum capacitive sensitivities of 0.0775 cm-1 and -0.9831 cm-1, respectively, within a 2–14 cm sensing range. In contrast, the encapsulated CPS shows maximum impedimetric and capacitive sensitivities of 0.3447 cm-1 and -3.349 cm-1, respectively, and an operation sensing range of 0–3 cm. The results show a 75% decrease in the total sensing range that could be attributed to: (i) a reduction of the effective sensing area due to a reduction of the roughness as demonstrated by SEM analysis, (ii) insulation effects limiting the impact of the material under test (MUT) on the charge carriers distribution, and (iii) decreased charge carrier density involved in the sensing process. Despite the reduced operational range, the encapsulation layer maintains the dual-parameter sensing capabilities, preserves the integrity of the sensing layer, and enables its dual functionality as a proximity and touch sensor. The reported comparison between the encapsulated and non-encapsulated CPSs highlights the effects of the encapsulation layer. The encapsulated version introduces a simple, fast, and cost-effective novel approach for developing CPSs that outperforms some reported CPSs in terms of reliability due to its dual-parameter sensing capability and sensitivity., This work has been supported by the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Ministry of Research and Universities, the European Social Fund, and the projects TED2021-131552B-C22 and PID2021-126719OB-C42., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

This final degree project has investigated the feasibility of an object detection system using the YOLOv7 algorithm and the LabelImg labelling tool. The main objective was to analyse how this technology can be applied to object detection in airport environments. Despite practical limitations due to adverse weather conditions that prevented sufficient data collection, a comprehensive theoretical analysis has been conducted. The project initially planned to use drones for image capture, leveraging their unique perspectives. However, operational and safety restrictions led to the exploration of alternative methods such as static cameras for data acquisition. These alternatives can offer greater robustness and efficiency to the detection system. The theoretical study focused on the configuration and training of the YOLOv7 model, highlighting its ability to process images in real-time with high accuracy. Emphasis was also placed on the importance of high-quality labelled data, which is essential for obtaining a valid object detection model, from the initial to subsequent iterations to perfect the model. Throughout the project, the use of Roboflow for dataset management was considered due to its use in a previous practice, but LabelImg was ultimately chosen due to the tutor's familiarity with this tool. Despite not being able to carry out the practical part of the project on a large scale, the theoretical results obtained provide a solid foundation for future research. This work represents a theoretical contribution to the field of computer vision, offering a clear guide on how to approach the implementation of YOLOv7 in a real environment and highlighting the necessary technical considerations. Although no debris detection system has been implemented in any Schengen country, EASA has already highlighted this use case of artificial intelligence in its latest AI Roadmap for Aviation. A similar project, scaled appropriately and with the necessary resources, could represent, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura

Roads are a source of mortality for federally threatened eastern massasauga rattlesnakes (EMR; Sistrurus catenatus) in Michigan. However, a clear understanding of space use and habitat selection of EMR near roads is lacking. Identifying when, where, and why EMR use spaces near roads could inform decisions that reduce the risk of road-related mortalities. Objectives of this research were to survey for EMR at sites along state trunkline roadsides, and report on occupancy probability, demonstrate how weather influences EMR visibility during visual encounter surveys, and explore environmental factors resulting in high EMR space use near roads. During 54 formal (i.e., following a previously published survey protocol) EMR surveys at 35 sites, five EMR were detected (at two sites) along state trunklines. A site refers to an area within the modeled habitat range of EMR, <300m from a roadside and consisting of vegetation cover types (e.g., wet prairie, emergent marsh, early successional forest edges, and upland grassland lightly interspersed with woody vegetation) suitable for EMR use during the overwintering and active seasons. Individual EMR surveys had low site-level detection probability (mean = 0.16 (SE = 0.11)), but repeated surveys increased detection probability to near 1.00 at some sites. In total, 24 EMR were radio-tagged at the two occupied sites and collected locations 1-5 times per week.

To overcome the low spectral efficiency issue caused by large guard space adopted in conventional channel estimation schemes for orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) systems, superimposed pilot-data placement schemes without the use of guard space have been considered in the literature. However, it is still an open problem for efficient joint channel estimation and OTFS symbol detection based on superimposed pilot-data placement schemes. In this work, an orthogonal approximate message passing (OAMP) based joint channel estimation and detection algorithm with the aid of mean-field (MF) message passing is proposed. In particular, soft information corresponding to the effective channel matrix and data symbols are fed OAMP-based symbol detector and channel estimator via MF, respectively. Thanks to the MF message passing rules, enhanced error performance is brought by iterative information exchange between the OTFS detector and the channel estimator. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed iterative algorithm can efficiently detect the data symbols without the use of guard space.

Orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation has emerged as a promising solution to support high-mobility wireless communications, for which, cost-effective data detectors are critical. Although graph neural network (GNN)-based data detectors can achieve decent detection accuracy at reasonable computational cost, they fail to best harness prior information of transmitted data. To further minimize the data detection error of OTFS systems, this letter develops an AMP-GNN-based detector, leveraging the approximate message passing (AMP) algorithm to iteratively improve the symbol estimates of a GNN. Given the inter-Doppler interference (IDI) symbols incur substantial computational overhead to the constructed GNN, learning-based IDI approximation is implemented to sustain low detection complexity. Simulation results demonstrate a remarkable bit error rate (BER) performance achieved by the proposed AMP-GNN-based detector compared to existing baselines. Meanwhile, the proposed IDI approximation scheme avoids a large amount of computations with negligible BER degradation. IEEE

This article explores the security control in a remote control system driven by local and remote controllers. By utilizing the information of the local controller (namely, local information, including its mean and error variance), we propose a new actuator-side detector that can prevent performance degradation caused by attacks on the remote control signal, which is transmitted to the actuator through wireless communication. Besides, it can also overcome the difficulties when a standard Kullback–Leibler divergence detector fails to detect such attacks before the control signal is input into the system due to the unavailability of innovation $z_{k}$ or measurement $y_{k}$. Subsequently, we characterize the corresponding impacts of different attack patterns on the estimation performance under the proposed detector. Based on this, we offer a compensation mechanism to improve the performance of the remote estimator under the attack. Finally, simulations are provided to illustrate the developed results. IEEE

Producción Científica, Livestock monitoring is a task traditionally carried out through direct observation by experienced caretakers. By analyzing its behavior, it is possible to predict to a certain degree events that require human action, such as calving. However, this continuous monitoring is in many cases not feasible. In this work, we propose, develop and evaluate the accuracy of intelligent algorithms that operate on data obtained by low-cost sensors to determine the state of the animal in the terms used by the caregivers (grazing, ruminating, walking, etc.). The best results have been obtained using aggregations and averages of the time series with support vector classifiers and tree-based ensembles, reaching accuracies of 57% for the general behavior problem (4 classes) and 85% for the standing behavior problem (2 classes). This is a preliminary step to the realization of event-specific predictions., Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación (CDTI) y Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)- (grant CIVEX IDI-20180355 and CIVEX IDI-20180354)

To the editor: Physical capacity tests are used for the diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of chronic respiratory diseases (CRD), such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) or Pulmonary Hypertension (PH).1 Among these tests, the most widely used is the 6-minute walking test (6MWT).2 Additionally, the guidelines highlight the need to continuously record biological signals, particularly oxygen saturation (SpO2), which has been shown to be a prognostic marker in CRD.2 [...], The study was supported by grants from Societat Catalana de Pneumologia (SOCAP) (ESTEVE TEIJIN/2021), PI17/1515 and PI21/0555 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCiii), co-funded by the European Union (ERDF/ESF, ”A way to make Europe” “Investing in your future”) and Premi d’Innovació de l’Hospital Clínic de Barcelona (2021). For UPC authors this work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under contract PID2021-124463OB-I00, the Catalan Government under contract 2021 SGR 00326 and the Catalan Department of Research and Universities., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

New detectors in photon science experiments produce rapidly-growing volumes of data. For detector developers, this poses two challenges; firstly, raw data streams from detectors must be converted to meaningful images at ever-higher rates, and secondly, there is an increasing need for data reduction relatively early in the data processing chain. An overview of data correction and reduction is presented, with an emphasis on how different data reduction methods apply to different experiments in photon science. These methods can be implemented in different hardware (e.g., CPU, GPU or FPGA) and in different stages of a detector's data acquisition chain; the strengths and weaknesses of these different approaches are discussed.

La monitorización de la posición en los pacientes que tienen movilidad reducida es de gran importancia en el ámbito de la salud, ya que podría suponer un gran riesgo desarrollando enfermedades como las ulceras por presión (UPP). En los últimos años se realizaron varios estudios midiendo las fuerzas que intervienen en la postura del paciente. Un problema que obstaculiza el progreso de la investigación es la dificultad para medir la fuerza de corte o fuerza transversal (shear force) en los usuarios de sillas de ruedas, en comparación con las demás. En este proyecto se desarrollará un sensor capacitivo innovador flexible con la capacidad de recuperación mecánica después de deformarse, que pretende contribuir a la prevención de úlceras por presión (PPU) en pacientes en silla de ruedas, mediante la medición de las fuerzas que surgen, y se centrará en la medición de la fuerza de corte. El proyecto se llevó a cabo inicialmente realizando un estudio de los posibles materiales a emplear, que deben ser flexibles y que se adapten a la geometría propuesta del sensor. Posteriormente, se realizó un estudio y análisis de las propuestas de posibles configuraciones para conseguir el objetivo de medir la fuerza de corte, mediante la medición de la variable de capacidad. De Los resultados de las mediciones de capacidad realizadas, se observa que tienen un comportamiento bastante lineal con el desplazamiento que tiene lugar entre los dos electrodos. Según los resultados obtenidos, el prototipo de sensor realiza las funciones que se han descrito en las especificaciones, es capaz de realizar medidas correctas y lineales en buena aproximación

As one of the core technologies for 5G systems, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) introduces dramatic capacity improvements along with very high beamforming and spatial multiplexing gains. When developing efficient physical layer algorithms for massive MIMO systems, message passing is one promising candidate owing to its superior performance. However, as their computational complexity increases dramatically with the problem size, the state-of-the-art message passing algorithms cannot be directly applied to future 6G systems, where an exceedingly large number of antennas are expected to be deployed. To address this issue, we propose a model-driven deep learning (DL) framework, namely the AMP-GNN for massive MIMO transceiver design, by considering the low complexity of the AMP algorithm and adaptability of GNNs. Specifically, the structure of the AMP-GNN network is customized by unfolding the approximate message passing (AMP) algorithm and introducing a graph neural network (GNN) module into it. The permutation equivariance property of AMP-GNN is proved, which enables the AMP-GNN to learn more efficiently and to adapt to different numbers of users. We also reveal the underlying reason why GNNs improve the AMP algorithm from the perspective of expectation propagation, which motivates us to amalgamate various GNNs with different message passing algorithms. In the simulation, we take the massive MIMO detection to exemplify that the proposed AMP-GNN significantly improves the performance of the AMP detector, achieves comparable performance as the state-of-the-art DL-based MIMO detectors, and presents strong robustness to various mismatches. IEEE

The far-infrared Universe provides substantial insights into the formation of stars and planetary systems, the assembly history and evolution of galaxies, the origins of the Universe, and the search for life. Despite its great scientific potential, the far-infrared Universe remains relatively unexplored with the degree of spatial resolution that is available in observations at other wavelengths. Double-Fourier spatial-spectral interferometry provides a promising path to achieve transformative spatial resolution in far-infrared observations. To further study this technique and improve on its technology readiness, we have constructed a far-infrared double-Fourier interferometry testbed that is coupled to a unique detector array of feedback-controlled transition-edge sensor bolometers. To fully understand measurements made with the interferometry testbed and ensure that these are well-calibrated, the detector system must be understood and characterised at a technical level. The detector array itself is a bespoke system with a substantial parameter space that can be optimized for different use-cases which has made this a daunting task. This thesis centres on the experiments I have conducted to characterise, calibrate, and optimise the detector system both in a general sense and in the context of the double-Fourier instrument. Through this investigation of the detector system, I have reduced the spectral noise of the double-Fourier interferometry testbed by 70%. Throughout this work, I review the concepts and theory related to measurements made with Fourier transform spectrometers and double-Fourier interferometers (Chapter 2). Additionally, I discuss transition-edge sensor bolometers and introduce the feedback-controlled bolometer system (Chapter 3). I have included a detailed discussion of my experiments to chracterise the measurement process of the detector array, optimise its noise performance, and tune its response to optical modulation (Chapter 4). I also provide a

The far-infrared Universe provides substantial insights into the formation of stars and planetary systems, the assembly history and evolution of galaxies, the origins of the Universe, and the search for life. Despite its great scientific potential, the far-infrared Universe remains relatively unexplored with the degree of spatial resolution that is available in observations at other wavelengths. Double-Fourier spatial-spectral interferometry provides a promising path to achieve transformative spatial resolution in far-infrared observations. To further study this technique and improve on its technology readiness, we have constructed a far-infrared double-Fourier interferometry testbed that is coupled to a unique detector array of feedback-controlled transition-edge sensor bolometers. To fully understand measurements made with the interferometry testbed and ensure that these are well-calibrated, the detector system must be understood and characterised at a technical level. The detector array itself is a bespoke system with a substantial parameter space that can be optimized for different use-cases which has made this a daunting task. This thesis centres on the experiments I have conducted to characterise, calibrate, and optimise the detector system both in a general sense and in the context of the double-Fourier instrument. Through this investigation of the detector system, I have reduced the spectral noise of the double-Fourier interferometry testbed by 70%. Throughout this work, I review the concepts and theory related to measurements made with Fourier transform spectrometers and double-Fourier interferometers (Chapter 2). Additionally, I discuss transition-edge sensor bolometers and introduce the feedback-controlled bolometer system (Chapter 3). I have included a detailed discussion of my experiments to chracterise the measurement process of the detector array, optimise its noise performance, and tune its response to optical modulation (Chapter 4). I also provide a

Low-cost Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) are ubiquitously used in the attitude estimation of cell phones and robots. Accurate and robust IMU calibration is required to ensure attitude estimation accuracy. This paper proposes an accurate and robust equipment-free IMU calibration method. We do not assume gyroscope biases are invariant during calibration compared with conventional methods because low-cost IMUs like MPU6000 have large gyroscope biases instability. We propose introducing biases removal and outlier-aware optimization to alleviate the impact of variant gyroscope biases. Furthermore, we introduce a multi-resolution analysis based static detector to detect subtle IMU motion in real data collection. Our detector can detect 84% subtle motions (1-degree rotations) present in the simulated calibration data while the conventional variance thresholding detector can only detect 31% of them. In addition, we derive a proper data collection method to guide the user to collect data effectively. We benchmark our method with another existing equipment-free method with synthetic and real datasets. The results in synthetic datasets show that our method is 25% more accurate and robust than the existing method. The results in real datasets vouch that our method achieves an estimation of IMU intrinsic parameters comparable to the ground truth. Furthermore, the roll and pitch estimation of MPU6000 using our calibration method are close to (< 0.15° in ±30°) that of an expensive factory-calibrated IMU in real testing. IEEE

Multiple-object tracking (MOT) is a crucial component in autonomous driving systems. However, inaccurate object detection is always the bottleneck for MOT. Most detectors are not designed to take the temporal information across consecutive frames into consideration. To take advantage of such information, we design a novel data representation, the spatio-temporal (ST) map, which collects a batch of detection results spatio-temporally, and we train a novel network, ST-TrackNet, to assign predicted track IDs to each positive detection across a sequence. With our ST map detection fed into the tracker, the correlation of objects between adjacent frames becomes prominent, which improves the performance of the tracker in the data association step. Moreover, the long-term trajectory in a sequence also helps to refine the detection results. We train and evaluate our network on the KITTI dataset, a CARLA simulation dataset, and a dataset recorded in a factory environment. Our approach generally achieves superior performance over the state-of-the-art. Note to Practitioners—We investigate the MOT problem in this paper. A spatio-temporal pipeline is proposed to provide a solution to this problem. Object detection results produced by off-the-shelf object detectors are used to form the proposed ST maps. In low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) situations, our proposed framework can achieve more accurate and robust tracking results with more false-positives. Due to the simplicity and modular design of our framework, it can be applied directly after the detection stage to achieve the online tracking task. The proposed method is evaluated on several datasets, and the experimental results demonstrate its effectiveness. Our method can also be used for other autonomous driving applications, such as path planning and trajectory prediction. IEEE

The balanced photodetector (BPD) is an important component for high-speed coherent receiver. An optimization strategy of waveguide-based multi-quantum well (MQW) BPDs, operating at 1550 nm is demonstrated on a generic InP platform. Design parameters of BPD are optimized towards achieving the highest bandwidth for a responsivity through an algorithm based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). We do so by establishing an equivalent circuit model of BPD and analyzing its opto-electronic transfer function through numerical modelling. We address the major bottlenecks of high-speed BPDs: transit time of generated carriers and RC loading in our model. The algorithm is able to provide multiple combinations of design parameters with the same output characteristics. The design methodology to integrate laser with optimized BPD is presented to successfully implement a coherent receiver.

A challenge of ambient backscatter communication (AmBC) systems is signal recovery because the transmitted information bits are embedded in the ambient RF signals and these are unknown and uncontrollable. To meet this challenge, averaging-based energy detectors are typically used but consequently the data rate is low and there is an error floor. Here we propose a new detection strategy based on the ratio between signals received from a multiple-antenna Reader. The advantage of using the ratio is that ambient RF signals are removed directly from the embedded signals without averaging and hence it can increase data rates and avoid the error floor. Different from the original ratio detector that uses the magnitude ratio of the signals between two Reader antennas, in our proposed approach, we utilize the complex ratio so that phase information is preserved and propose an accurate linear channel model approximation. This allows the application of existing linear detection techniques from which we can obtain a minimum distance detector and closed-form expressions for bit error rate (BER). Methods for the estimation of channel state information (CSI) are also provided. In addition, coding and interleaving are also included to further enhance the BER. The results are also general, allowing any number of Reader antennas to be utilized in the approach. Numerical results demonstrate the proposed approach performs better than approaches based on energy detection and the original ratio detectors. IEEE

Vision language pre-training aims to learn alignments between vision and language from a large amount of data. Most existing methods only learn image-text alignments. Some others utilize pre-trained object detectors to leverage vision language alignments at the object level. In this paper, we propose to learn multi-grained vision language alignments by a unified pre-training framework that learns multi-grained aligning and multi-grained localization simultaneously. Based on it, we present X2-VLM, an all-in-one model with a flexible modular architecture, in which we further unify image-text pre-training and video-text pre-training in one model. X2-VLM is able to learn unlimited visual concepts associated with diverse text descriptions. Experiment results show that X2-VLM performs the best on base and large scale for both image-text and video-text tasks, making a good trade-off between performance and model scale. Moreover, we show that the modular design of X2-VLM results in high transferability for it to be utilized in any language or domain. For example, by simply replacing the text encoder with XLM-R, X2-VLM outperforms state-of-the-art multilingual multi-modal pre-trained models without any multilingual pre-training. The code and pre-trained models are available athttps://github.com/zengyan-97/X2-VLM. IEEE

Semantic mapping based on the supervised object detectors is sensitive to image distribution. In real-world environments, the object detection and segmentation performance can lead to a major drop, preventing the use of semantic mapping in a wider domain. On the other hand, the development of vision-language foundation models demonstrates a strong zero-shot transferability across data distribution. It provides an opportunity to construct generalizable instance-aware semantic maps. Hence, this work explores how to boost instance-aware semantic mapping from object detection generated from foundation models. We propose a probabilistic label fusion method to predict close-set semantic classes from open-set label measurements. An instance refinement module merges the over-segmented instances caused by inconsistent segmentation. We integrate all the modules into a unified semantic mapping system. Reading a sequence of RGB-D input, our work incrementally reconstructs an instanceaware semantic map. We evaluate the zero-shot performance of our method in ScanNet and SceneNN datasets. Our method achieves 40.3 mean average precision (mAP) on the ScanNet semantic instance segmentation task. It outperforms the traditional semantic mapping method significantly IEEE

The BETA application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is a fully programmable chip designed to amplify, shape and digitize the signal of up to 64 Silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) channels, with a power consumption of approximately 1 mW/channel. Owing to its dual-path gain, the BETA chip is capable of resolving single photoelectrons (phes) with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) >5 while simultaneously achieving a dynamic range of 4000 phes. Thus, BETA can provide a cost-effective solution for the readout of SiPMs in space missions and other applications with a maximum rate below 10 kHz. In this study, we describe the key characteristics of the BETA ASIC and present an evaluation of the performance of its 16-channel version, which is implemented using 130 nm technology. The ASIC also contains two discriminators that can provide trigger signals with a time jitter down to 400 ps FWHM for 10 phes. The linearity error of the charge gain measurement was less than 2% for a dynamic range as large as 15 bits., Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. The authors acknowledge financial support from Grant PID2020-116075GB-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe” under Grant PID2020-116075GB-C21. They also acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the “Unit of Excellence Maria de Maeztu 2020-2023” award to the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (CEX2019-000918-M)., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

This article proposes and experimentally characterizes two implementations of a novel front-end circuit for three-wire connected resistive sensors with a wire-resistance compensation. The first implementation relies on two twin diodes, whereas the second on a switch; in both cases, those devices are non-remote (i.e., they are placed at the circuit end). The two circuit proposals have a square-wave input excitation so that a constant current with the two polarities is alternatively generated. Then, depending on that polarity, the current goes through either the sensor and the wire parasitic resistances or just the parasitic resistances. This generates a square-wave bipolar output signal whose average value, which is obtained by a low-pass filter, is proportional to the sensor resistance and only depends on the mismatch between two of the three wire resistances involved. Experimental tests applied to resistances related to a Pt100 thermal sensor show a remarkable linearity. For example, the switch-based front-end circuit offers a non-linearity error lower than 0.01% full-scale span, and this is practically insensitive to both the presence and the mismatch between the wire resistances., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

En aquest treball de final de grau es pot trobar el disseny i desenvolupament d'un prototip d'un sistema de gestió domòtica per a persones que presenten algun tipus de discapacitat, destinat a millorar l'accessibilitat i l'autonomia d'aquestes persones. Per això es realitza un estudi de tots els tipus de discapacitats, valorant els diferents aspectes i valorant els diferents punts per a elaborar un sistema generalment universal, utilitzant diferents tecnologies per assegurar una experiència de l'usuari inclusiva. En aquesta memòria tècnica, es pot trobar l'estudi mencionat anteriorment, on es fa un estudi de les diferents discapacitats que existeixen i quines dificultats tenen en el seu dia a dia. Un estudi dels diferents components a usar per a satisfer les necessitats prèviament establertes juntament amb el seu disseny. I finalment el disseny i desenvolupament del prototip físic de proves, juntament amb el desenvolupament del software i de l'aplicació mòbil amb la qual es pot controlar el sistema domòtic de forma remota., En este trabajo de final de grado se puede encontrar el diseño y desarrollo de un prototipo de un sistema de gestión domótica para personas que presentan algún tipo de discapacidad, destinado a mejorar la accesibilidad y la autonomía de estas personas. Por eso se realiza un estudio de todos los tipos de discapacidades, valorando los diferentes aspectos y valorando los diferentes puntos para elaborar un sistema generalmente universal, utilizando diferentes tecnologías para asegurar una experiencia del usuario inclusiva. En esta memoria técnica, se puede encontrar el estudio mencionado anteriormente, donde se realiza un estudio de las diferentes discapacidades que existen y qué dificultades tienen en su día a día. Un estudio de los diferentes componentes a utilizar para satisfacer las necesidades previamente establecidas junto con su diseño. Y finalmente el diseño y desarrollo del prototipo físico de pruebas, junto con el desarrollo del software y de la aplicación móvil con la que se puede controlar el sistema domótico de forma remota., In this final degree work you can find the design and development of a prototype of a home automation management system for people with some kind of disability, aimed at improving the accessibility and autonomy of these people. Therefore, a study of all types of disabilities is carried out, assessing the different aspects and evaluating the different points to develop a generally universal system, using different technologies to ensure an inclusive user experience. In this technical report, you can find the study mentioned above, which consist of the different disabilities that exist and what difficulties they have in their day to day. Another study of the different components to be used to meet the needs previously established along with its design. Finally, the design and development of the physical test prototype, along with the development of the software and the mobile application with which the home automation system can be controlled remotely.

En este proyecto se montará un sistema que permita medir la resistencia de la piel, así como otros parámetros tales como la temperatura o la aceleración, así como también el software que permita la comunicación entre dispositivos externos. Para ello, se seleccionará el material, así como también se realizará el montaje de todo el sistema para que resulte en un componente poco intrusivo. El proceso que seguirá este proyecto será el siguiente: selección del material, estudio del comportamiento de los diferentes sensores, implementación de las lecturas en el hardware seleccionado, creación de una aplicación para dispositivo móvil Android que permita la comunicación entre dispositivos, validación tanto del hardware seleccionado como del software programado, testeo de la totalidad del trabajo y redacción de la memoria. Una vez realizados los ensayos, estos se compararán con la teoría inicial para ver como reacciona el cuerpo humano a diferentes estímulos

In the context of particle accelerators for experimental physics, the different detectors convert the energy of a determined particle into an electrical current. This electrical current is then processed using a readout integrated circuit (ROIC) which must fulfill some requirements regarding speed and precision in order to perform an accurate detection. One of the particle detector experiments developed at the world's largest particle accelerator at CERN is the LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) aimed to observe b-quarks and make precise measurements of CP violation. The ROIC designed for the LHCb experiment is being developed in a joint collaboration between researchers from UB (Universitat de Barcelona) and UPC. It must be capable of integrating the pulse charge of one channel event. One of the main blocks in this ROIC consists of an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) with a very high gain, GBW and slew-rate designed in CMOS 65 nm technology. The main purpose of this thesis is to design this OTA with fully-differential operation and rail-to-rail swings at both input and output and study how to exploit the advantages that it can add to the experiment.

El Treball de Fi de Grau consisteix en desenvolupar un prototip d'enregistrament de dades aplicat al motociclisme. Les dades seran rebudes a través d'un giroscopi i enregistrades en una targeta SD col·locada en una placa PCB. La principal aplicació d'aquest dispositiu és enregistrar les acceleracions lineals, acceleracions angulars i els girs realitzats durant una pràctica per a posteriorment ser analitzades per a perfeccionar la tècnica de pilotatge. Durant el projecte es realitzarà un estudi de mercat amb l’objectiu de comparar diferents sistemes de recaptació de dades que actualment es comercialitzen. Per poder dur a terme el sistema d’enregistrament de dades es realitzarà la cerca i tria de sensors necessaris amb l’objectiu de dissenyar i fabricar el prototip. Posteriorment, es realitzarà un sèrie de proves per validar el seu comportament i així poder dur a terme un estudi de millores per optimitzar el dispositiu. Es realitzarà la fase 2.0 del prototip per a optimitzar y perfeccionar el seu disseny per a la fabricació en sèrie

This work was funded by Comunidad de Madrid under project B2017/BMD-3888 PRONTO-CM “Protontherapy and nuclear techniques for oncology” and by the Spanish Government and EU Regional Funds (RTI2018-098868-B-I00, RTC-2015-3772-1). A. Espinosa Rodríguez has been funded by a FPU predoctoral fellowship of the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (FPU18/02551). This is a contribution for the Moncloa Campus of International Excellence, “Grupo de Física Nuclear-UCM”, Ref. 910059. Part of the calculations of this work were performed in the “Clúster de Cálculo para Técnicas Físicas”, funded in part by Universidad Complutense de Madrid and in part by EU Regional Funds., BackgroundRecent proposals of high dose rate plans in protontherapy as well as very short proton bunches may pose problems to current beam monitor systems. There is an increasing demand for real-time proton beam monitoring with high temporal resolution, extended dynamic range and radiation hardness. Plastic scintillators coupled to optical fiber sensors have great potential in this context to become a practical solution towards clinical implementation. PurposeIn this work, we evaluate the capabilities of a very compact fast plastic scintillator with an optical fiber readout by a SiPM and electronics sensor which has been used to provide information on the time structure at the nanosecond level of a clinical proton beam. Materials and methodsA 3 x 3 x 3 mm(3) plastic scintillator (EJ-232Q Eljen Technology) coupled to a 3 x 3 mm(2) SiPM (MicroFJ-SMA-30035, Onsemi) has been characterized with a 70 MeV clinical proton beam accelerated in a Proteus One synchrocyclotron. The signal was read out by a high sampling rate oscilloscope (5 GS/s). By exposing the sensor directly to the proton beam, the time beam profile of individual spots was recorded. ResultsMeasurements of detector signal have been obtained with a time sampling period of 0.8 ns. Proton bunch period (16 ns), spot (10 mu s) and interspot (1 ms) time structures could be observed in the time profile of the detector signal amplitude. From this, the RF frequency of the accelerator has been extracted, which is found to be 64 MHz. ConclusionsThe proposed system was able to measure the fine time structure of a clinical proton accelerator online and with ns time resolution., Comunidad de Madrid, Gobierno de España, EU Regional Funds, Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Depto. de Estructura de la Materia, Física Térmica y Electrónica, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

This paper proposes a model to detect and solve coverage holes in 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) deployments operating with millimeter waves. The proposed model utilizes a DBSCAN-based detector to identify coverage constrained areas and then proposes the use of Relay User Equipment (RUE) capabilities to extend the RAN coverage. To optimize the activation and deactivation of RUEs, a Deep-Q-Network-based algorithm is proposed, aiming to improve spectral efficiency and decrease the outage probability experienced by network users. The obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness of the model in accurately detecting coverage constrained areas and efficiently solving these issues by means of an effective RUE activation, leading to significant improvements in network performance while minimizing the time that RUEs remain in active mode, which implies potential benefits for MNOs and UE holders and significant energy savings., This paper is part of ARTIST project (ref. PID2020- 115104RB-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033. The work is also funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under grant ref. PRE2018-084691. The work of Irene Vilà has also been funded by European Union-NextGenerationEU, Spanish Ministry of Universities and the Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience, through the call for Margarita Salas Grants of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ref. 2022UPC-MSC- 94079), Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

© 2023 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0, This paper presents the development and analysis of novel capacitive proximity sensors (CPS) based on SiO2 nanoparticles and NaCl. The fabricated devices have been designed using a simple electrode structure intending to focus the study on the sensing layer and the contribution of NaCl to the sensor’s performance. A methodological experiment has been carried out to evaluate the proximity sensing properties at room temperature within the sensing range (5-140 mm). The results of the electrical impedance spectroscopy have been fitted using an equivalent circuit that models the electric behaviour of the electrode-sensing interfaces and the sensing layer. This approach reveals that the sensing mechanism is dominated by the charge carrier’s diffusion due to chemical reactions between the NaCl and the SiO2 nanoparticles. This work concludes that the presence of NaCl in the sensing layer changes the sensing features due to charge distribution and conductivity. In particular, the addition of 25% and 50% of NaCl enhances the proximity sensing capabilities of the proposed devices. The results of the proposed devices with 25% and 50% exhibit a detection distance of 140 mm with maximum capacitive sensitivities of -38.8 %cm-1 and -4740 %cm, This work has been supported by the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Ministry of Research and Universities and the European Social Fund, and the project PID2021–126719OB-C42. The conceptual figures have been partly designed and produced by Octavi Prats Reig., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (author's final draft)

Improving the resilience of sensor systems in space exploration is a key objective since the environmental conditions to which they are exposed are very harsh. For example, it is known that the presence of flying debris and Dust Devils on the Martian surface can partially damage sensors present in rovers/landers. The objective of this work is to show how data-driven methods can improve sensor resilience, particularly in the case of complex sensors, with multiple intermediate variables, feeding an inverse algorithm (IA) based on calibration data. The method considers three phases: an initial phase in which the sensor is calibrated in the laboratory and an IA is designed; a second phase, in which the sensor is placed at its intended location and sensor data is used to train data-driven model; and a third phase, once the model has been trained and partial damage is detected, in which the data-driven algorithm is reducing errors. The proposed method is tested with the intermediate data of the wind sensor of the TWINS instrument (NASA InSight mission), consisting of two booms placed on the deck of the lander, and three boards per boom. Wind speed and angle are recovered from the intermediate variables provided by the sensor and predicted by the proposed method. A comparative analysis of various data-driven methods including machine learning and deep learning (DL) methods is carried out for the proposed research. It is shown that even a simple method such as k-nearest neighbor is capable of successfully recovering missing data of a board compared to complex DL models. Depending on the selected missing board, errors are reduced by a factor between 2.43 and 4.78, for horizontal velocity; and by a factor between 1.74 and 4.71, for angle, compared with the situation of using only the two remaining boards., Postprint (published version)

Producción Científica, The design, construction and validation of a device for the accurate measurement of the dissolved oxygen content in wine and simultaneously the variation of its spectral fingerprint is presented. The novelty of this system is due to two innovative approaches. First, robustness in measurements is obtained by using cuvettes designed to simultaneously measure the dissolved oxygen and color. Secondly, automatic monitoring is performed to ensure that measurements are always taken at the same cuvette position. The fine-tuning of the device with the study of white and red wines makes it possible, on the one hand, to establish the appropriate measurement conditions and, on the other hand, to determine the amount of oxygen required to cause specific changes in the wine spectrum, information that could not be obtained until now. The preliminary results are very interesting, presenting precise data on the amount of oxygen consumed by the wine and the variations in its visible spectrum, thus reflecting the modification of the responsible phenolic compounds. This information is of great interest, since it helps to optimize the handling of the wine and, if necessary, to moderate the uptake of oxygen in each type of wine to ensure the maintenance of the color during the winemaking and conservation processes of each type of wine. The results of the experiments indicate that this new instrument is feasible and accurate for detecting oxygen changes during wine production., Ministerio de Economía, Comercio y Empresa (MINECO) - (project AGL2017-87373-C3-2-R), Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo de Chile (ANID) - (grant BECAS DE DOCTORADO CHILE/2019-72200424)

A complex event processor (CEP) is a real-time processing system for extracting meaningful data from an input data stream. One potential application of the CEP system is for a network intrusion detection system (NIDS), which monitors packet data streams in a network to detect packets containing viruses. A complex event detector (CED) circuit performs pattern matching in the CEP system, where high throughput is required. To respond to high throughput, we designed a CED circuit using single-flux-quantum (SFQ) circuits, which have the potential to operate at a very high speed beyond 50 GHz with extremely low power consumption. The proposed SFQ CED circuit corresponds to regular expressions. It consists of a string-matching unit (SMU), which performs string matching, and a state transition unit (STU), a structure mimicking a finite automaton. We designed the fundamental component of the SFQ CED circuit and demonstrated an eight-symbol CED circuit at a maximum operating frequency of 52.9 GHz.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have become a promising candidate for the development of future mobile systems. In the context of massive machine-type communications (mMTC), a RIS can be used to support the transmission from a group of sensors to a collector node. Due to the short data packets, we focus on the design of the RIS for maximizing the weighted sum and minimum rates in the finite blocklength regime. Under the assumption of non-orthogonal multiple access, successive interference cancelation is considered as a decoding scheme to mitigate interference. Accordingly, we formulate the optimizations as non-convex problems and propose two suboptimal solutions based on gradient ascent (GA) and sequential optimization (SO) with semi-definite relaxation (SDR). In the GA, we distinguish between Euclidean and Riemannian gradients. For the SO, we derive a concave lower bound for the throughput and maximize it sequentially applying SDR. Numerical results show that the SO can outperform the GA and that strategies relying on the optimization of the classical Shannon capacity might be inadequate for mMTC networks., This work was supported by the project ROUTE56 (PID2019-104945GB-I00 / MCIN / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033) funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation); and the FPI grant BES-2017-079994, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (author's final draft)

Many sweat-based wearable monitoring systems have been recently proposed, but the data provided by those systems often lack a reliable and meaningful relation to standardized blood values. One clear example is lactate, a relevant biomarker for both sports and health sectors, with a complex sweat–blood bioequivalence. This limitation decreases its individual significance as a sweat-based biomarker. Taking into account the insights of previous studies, a multiparametric methodology has been proposed to predict blood lactate from non-invasive independent sensors: sweat lactate, sweat rate, and heart rate. The bioequivalence study was performed with a large set of volunteers (>30 subjects) in collaboration with sports institutions (Institut Nacional d’Educació Física de Catalunya, INEFC, and Centre d’Alt Rendiment, CAR, located in Spain). A neural network algorithm was used to predict blood lactate values from the sensor data and subject metadata. The developed methodology reliably and accurately predicted blood lactate absolute values, only adding 0.3 mM of accumulated error when compared to portable blood lactate meters, the current gold standard for sports clinicians. The approach proposed in this work, along with an integrated platform for sweat monitoring, will have a strong impact on the sports and health fields as an autonomous, real-time, and continuous monitoring tool, The authors kindly acknowledge the support from the Spanish Ministerio de Indústria, Energía y Turismo (AEI Clusters Program, AEI2009L1CA011), Ministerio de Ciencia y Innovació n (PID2020-114070RB-I00), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (RED2018-102829-T and CPP2021-009021), and AGAUR (2019 DI 18 and 2021PROD00064), Postprint (published version)

La detección de daños en estructuras es un reto para la ingeniería. Hasta ahora en el sector aeronáutico la metodología a seguir era llevar a cabo mantenimientos preventivos periódicos para la detección de estos daños. Algunos daños son perceptibles mediante una simple inspección visual, pero otros requieren desmontar partes de la aeronave y ser analizada mediante ensayos de detección no destructivos (NDT). Esto supone un alto coste económico, ya que, a parte del propio coste de estas inspecciones, se le tiene que sumar el tiempo que la aeronave está inoperativa. Algunos defectos son difíciles de detectar y una vez son detectados ya pueden haber causado un daño severo en la estructura. Para conseguir detectar estos fallos en sus primeros estados y además reducir o eliminar el tiempo de que la nave esté fuera de servicio, se están implementando una red de sensores para monitorizar la salud de la estructura en tiempo real. Estos sistemas de monitorización y detección de defectos en estructuras, es conocido como SHMS por sus siglas en inglés Structural Health Monitoring Systems. Para implementar esta red de sensores en la estructura, es importante determinar el número de sensores y la localización de éstos para detectar cualquier daño en la estructura. Una buena optimización de la red de sensores permite detectar cualquier fallo en la estructura y además reducir costes tanto en la instalación de los sensores como en el equipamiento para procesar los datos. Un alto número de sensores daría un conjunto de datos demasiado grande, que tendría un gran coste computacional que repercute en el tiempo de procesamiento de los datos y los requerimientos del equipo. En el presente proyecto se propone e implemente una metodología para determinar qué sensores son los que nos dan más información para después mediante pruebas poder determinar si esta metodología funciona. Este método se basa en hacer uso de un método de reducción de dimensiones y calcular ciertos índices estadísticos, La detecció de defectes en estructures és un repte per l’enginyeria. Fins ara en el sector aeronàutic la metodologia a seguir era portar a terme manteniments preventius periòdicament per la detecció d’aquests defectes. Alguns defectes són perceptibles mitjançant una simple inspecció visual, però d’ altres requereixen desmuntar part de l’aeronau i ser analitzada mitjançant assajos de detecció no destructius (NDT). Això suposa un alt cost econòmic, ja que, a part de propi cost d’aquestes inspeccions, s’ha de sumar el temps que l’aeronau està inoperativa. Alguns defectes són difícils de detectar i una vegada son detectats ja poden haver causat un dany sever a l’estructura. Per aconseguir detectar aquests defectes en els seus primers estats i a més reduir o eliminar el temps que l’aeronau està inoperativa, s’està implementant una xarxa de sensors per monitoritzar la salut de l’estructura en temps real. Aquests sistemes de monitorització i detecció de defectes en estructures, són coneguts com SHS per les seves sigles en anglès Structural Health Monitoring Systems. Per implementar aquesta xarxa de sensors a l’estructura és important determinar el nombre de sensors i la localització d’aquests per detectar qualssevol defecte a l’estructura. Una bona optimització de la xarxa de sensors permet detectar qualssevol defecte a l’estructura i a més reduir costos tant en la instal·lació dels sensors com en l’equipament per a processar les dades. Un alt nombre de sensors donaria un conjunt de dades massa gran, que tindria un gran cost computacional que repercutiria en el temps de processament d’aquestes dades i els requeriments de l’equip. En el present projecte es proposa i s’implementa una metodologia per determinar quins sensors son els que ens donen més informació per després mitjançant probes poder determinar si aquesta metodologia funciona. Aquest mètode es basa en fer ús d’un mètode de reducció de dimensions i calcular uns índexs estadístics per després calcular les contribuc, The detection of damage in structures is a challenge for engineering. Until now, in the aeronautical sector, the methodology to follow was to carry out periodic preventive maintenance to detect these damages. Some damage is perceptible by simple visual inspection, but others require disassembling parts of the aircraft and being analyzed by non-destructive detection testing (NDT). This implies a high economic cost, since, apart from the cost of these inspections, the time that the aircraft is inoperative must be added. Some defects are difficult to detect and once detected they may already have caused severe damage to the structure. In order to detect these failures in their early stages and also reduce or eliminate the time the ship is out of service, a network of sensors is being implemented to monitor the health of the structure in real time. These systems for monitoring and detecting defects in structures are known as SHMS for its acronym Structural Health Monitoring Systems. To implement this sensor network in the structure, it is important to determine the number of sensors and their location to detect any damage to the structure. A good optimization of the sensor network allows detecting any failure in the structure and also reduces costs both in the installation of the sensors and in the equipment to process the data. A high number of sensors would give a data set that is too large, which would have a large computational cost that affects the data processing time and equipment requirements. In the present project, a methodology is proposed and implemented to determine which sensors are the ones that give us more information so that later, through tests, we can determine if this methodology works. This method is based on making use of a dimension reduction method and calculating certain statistical parameters, to later calculate the contributions of each sensor to these parameters. With the contributions we have a selection criteria to determine which sensors

We show that the homomorphic property, a desired property in encrypted control, can lead to failure in the cyber defense of a dynamical control system from undetectable attacks, even though individual signal sequences remain unknown to the attacker. We consider an encryption method based on the Learning with Errors (LWE) problem and demonstrate how model-free undetectable attacks on linear systems over integers can be computed from sampled inputs and outputs that are encrypted. Previous work has shown that computing such attacks is possible on nonencrypted systems. Applying this earlier work to our scenario, with minor modifications, typically amplifies the error in encrypted messages unless a short vector problem is solved. Given that an attacker obtains a short vector, we derive the probability that the attack is detected and show how it explicitly depends on the encryption parameters. Finally, we simulate an attack obtained by our method on an encrypted linear system over integers and conduct an analysis of the probability that the attack will be detected., QC 20230307

This article investigates the design of online stealthy attacks with the aim of moving the system's state to the desired target. Different from the design of offline attacks, which is only based on the system's model, to design the online attack, the attacker also estimates the system's state with the intercepted data at each instant and computes the optimal attack accordingly. To ensure stealthiness, the Kullback-Leibler divergence between the innovations with and without attacks at each instant should be smaller than a threshold. We show that the attacker should solve a convex optimization problem at each instant to compute the mean and covariance of the attack. The feasibility of the attack policy is also discussed. Furthermore, for the strictly stealthy case with zero threshold, the analytical expression of the unique optimal attack is given. Finally, a numerical example of the longitudinal flight control system is adopted to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed attack.

This report is about the measuring of a signal with a sensor and filtering useful information out of it with a microcontroller while keeping in consideration that the system has to be feasible, safe and robust. The main aim is to monitor the made measurements and perhaps use them to create useful information that could be used. To achieve the above mentioned this report explains the used protocols, platforms and more of how the system is created. This to have a fail-safe programming of the microcontroller and a trustable connection between the devices. This also means that the architectural design created is mentioned and explained. The system has to be easy understandable after reading this report and the possibility to create the system yourself has to be able as well keeping in mind that the budget needs to stay low as well. That is why we choose to make use of a cheap microcontroller that still has the possibility to use the WiFi-possibilities. With the use of a current clamp the measurements will be made. Keeping in mind there is no ADC (Analog Digital Converter) so the measurements will have to be converted with using a specific circuit diagram and a program. Once the above is created these measurements should be stored in a database with a wireless connection further in the report the protocols for making this data transport possible will be explained as well. In the end the aim is to create a design based on cheap components with the highest possible robustness and security with using open-source software that is easily accessible. It must also be taken into account that the architecture must be easily extensible, so that this system has the possibility to get integrate into other setups., Este documento trata sobre la medición de una señal con un sensor y el filtrado de información útil con un microcontrolador, teniendo en cuenta que el sistema debe ser factible, seguro y robusto. El objetivo principal es monitorear las mediciones realizadas y quizás usarlas para crear información útil que podría usarse. Para lograr lo mencionado anteriormente, este documento explica los protocolos utilizados, las plataformas y más sobre cómo se crea el sistema. Esto para tener una programación a prueba de fallas del microcontrolador y una conexión confiable entre los dispositivos. Esto también significa que se menciona y explica el diseño arquitectónico creado. El sistema debe ser fácil de entender después de leer este documento y la posibilidad de crear el sistema usted mismo también debe poder tener en cuenta que el presupuesto también debe mantenerse bajo. Es por eso que elegimos hacer uso de un microcontrolador barato que todavía tiene la posibilidad de usar las posibilidades WiFi. Con el uso de una pinza amperimétrica se realizarán las medidas. Teniendo en cuenta que no hay ADC (Convertidor analógico digital), por lo que las medidas deberán convertirse utilizando un diagrama de circuito específico y un programa. Una vez que se crea lo anterior, estas mediciones deben almacenarse en una base de datos con una conexión inalámbrica. Más adelante en el documento, también se explicarán los protocolos para hacer posible este transporte de datos. Al final, el objetivo es crear un diseño basado en componentes baratos con la mayor robustez y seguridad posible con el uso de software de código abierto y de fácil acceso. También hay que tener en cuenta que la arquitectura debe ser fácilmente extensible, para que este sistema tenga la posibilidad de integrarse en otras configuraciones., Incoming

High contrast direct imaging is one of the most technologically challenging techniques used to search for exoplanets and circumstellar disks. Despite its difficulty, it is incredibly powerful since it enables further characterization of these companions. Ground-based high contrast observations require Adaptive Optics (AO) systems to correct wavefront aberrations caused by the atmosphere and starlight suppression techniques like coronagraphy to reject on-axis starlight. The last two decades have seen several extreme AO systems come online, such as SPHERE at ESO, GPI at VLT, SCExAO at Subaru, and MagAO-X at LCO. As these AO systems have matured they have significantly improved achievable contrast ratios, but they are still limited by diffracted and scattered light that causes an interference patterns called speckles in astronomical images. To search for fainter sources these systems will need to improve their ultimate contrast ratios via improved wavefront control and novel data processing techniques.MKIDs are photon counting detectors capable of measuring a photon's arrival time with microsecond accuracy, its energy (or color), and the position it struck within an image. When used as astronomical cameras MKIDs can generate images with spectral information tens of thousands of times per second without readout noise associated with their conventional counterparts. This ability enables novel noise mitigation techniques and higher signal to noise ratios in astronomical images.This thesis will present the design, development, and commissioning of XKID, an MKID-based instrument behind the Magellan Extreme Adaptive Optics (MagAO-X) system at the Las Campanas Observatory (LCO). It is a near-infrared integral field spectrograph (IFS) whose goal is to search for and characterize protoplanets and exoplanets and to eventually operate as a real-time Focal Plane Wavefront Sensor (FPWFS). The first-light commissioning run for XKID took place in March 2023 and is slated to return to

The Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID) Exoplanet Camera (MEC) is a Y-J band integral field unit located behind the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics system (SCExAO) at the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea. The detector inside of MEC is a 20 kilo-pixel photon-counting MKID array that yields not only the energy of each photon (R~5), but also its arrival time (to within a microsecond) with no read noise or dark current. This temporal resolution allows us to perform post-processing techniques that leverage differences in the photon arrival time statistics between stars and their faint companions such as Stochastic Speckle Discrimination (SSD). With SSD, we have demonstrated the ability to uncover low mass stellar companions with the discovery of HIP 109427 B and also obtained the first SSD detection of a diffuse source using MEC observations of the known disk AB Aurigae. Here we can resolve structures in the disk within 0.3” without the use of any PSF subtraction or polarization. These analyses are made possible through the use of the MKID Pipeline, a new open-source data reduction and analysis pipeline developed for MKID instruments that takes raw MKID data as its input and can return not only unique MKID data products for specialized analysis, but also images that can easily interface with existing post-processing techniques (e.g. ADI) for more general science. This thesis first presents an introduction to high-contrast imaging, the MEC instrument, and photon statistics in millisecond images behind an Adaptive Optics system. We then introduce the MKID Pipeline which is the open source MKID Data Reduction and Analysis Software developed for MEC with extensibility to future MKID instruments. Using the MKID Pipeline, we then present the first science results with SCExAO/MEC with the discovery of HIP 109427 B using SSD with MEC as well as high resolution spectroscopy with the CHARIS instrument. We end with a broader discussion of how MKID instruments, lik

The ability to formulate maps of minimum detectable activities (MDAs) that describe the sensitivity of an ad hoc measurement that used one or more freely moving radiation detector systems would be significantly beneficial for the conduct and understanding of many radiological search activities. In a real-time scenario with a free-moving detector system, an MDA map can provide useful feedback to the operator about which areas have not been searched as thoroughly as others, thereby allowing the operator to prioritize future actions. Similarly, such a calculation could be used to inform subsequent navigation decisions of autonomous platforms. Here we describe a near real-time MDA mapping approach that can be applied when searching for point sources using detected events in a spectral region of interest (ROI) while assuming a constant, unknown background rate. We show the application of this MDA mapping method to a real scenario, a survey of the interior of a small building using a handheld detector system. Repeated measurements with no sources and with 137Cs sources of different strengths yield results consistent with the estimated thresholds and MDA values; namely, that for background-only measurements no sources are seen above threshold anywhere in the scene, while when sources are present they are detected above the thresholds calculated for their locations.

This thesis aims to study the characteristics of two sensors implemented in a pedal made using strain gauges and barometric sensors. We study the range, linearity, repeatability and dependency on time and temperature to establish if this sensors will be suitable or not to develop a torque sensor to control an ebike., Esta tesis tiene como objetivo estudiar las características de dos sensores implementados en un pedal fabricados mediante galgas extensométricas y sensores barométricos. Estudiamos el rango, la linealidad, la repetibilidad y dependencia en tiempo y temperatura para establecer si estos sensores serán adecuados o no para desarrollar un sensor de par para controlar una ebike., Aquesta tesi té com a objectiu estudiar les característiques de dos sensors implementats en un pedal fabricats utilitzant extensometres i sensors baromètrics. Estudiem el rang, la linealitat, la repetibilitat i dependència del temps i temperatura per establir si aquests sensors seran adequats o no per desenvolupar un sensor de parell per controlar una bicicleta elèctrica.

El proyecto tiene por objetivo la implementación de un módulo de detección y seguimiento de personas que permite el guiado de un robot móvil dotado de un sensor LIDAR. El proyecto está implementado en ROS y consta de dos partes principales, el primero es el módulo de detección de personas y el segundo es el módulo de navegación que permite al robot seguir a la persona que ha detectado. El primer módulo toma la nube de puntos que proporciona el sensor LIDAR y lo procesa en tres etapas. La primera consiste en delimitar la nube de puntos, retirando aquellos puntos cercanos al suelo y techo. En la segunda etapa se agrupan aquellos puntos que representan a objetos candidatos y se extraen sus características. En la última etapa se clasifican los objetos candidatos, según sus características, en humanos y no humanos haciendo uso de un clasificador basado en máquina de soporte vectorial (SVM). El segundo módulo calcula la orientación de la persona detectada, y planifica la trayectoria que seguirá el robot en función de la posición y orientación de la persona detectada.

In this paper, a full textile capacitive woven sensor integrated over a textile substrate is presented. The sensor consists in an interdigitated capacitance prepared to measure moisture and/or presence detection. In order to evaluate the sensor response to moisture, capacitance has been measured by means of an LCR meter from 20 Hz to 20 kHz in a climatic chamber with a swept of the relative humidity (RH) from 30% to 90% at 20 °C. Subsequently, presence response is evaluated measuring the capacitance of the woven sensor meanwhile a person is sitting down and getting up. The woven sensor results demonstrate its functionality over moisture measurement where sensor capacitance changes from a minimum of 9.74 pF at 30% RH to a maximum of 2.31 uF at 90% RH. The presence detection is also demonstrated, which makes the capacitance variation change from a 10% of capacitance variation when the chair is empty, to a capacitance variation of 170% when a person is sitting on it. The adaptation of the weaving process to accomplish a fully integrated sensor provides a better repeatability than previous embroidered sensors and opens a door to being commercially produced., This work was supported by Spanish Government-MINECO under Project TEC2016-79465-R and AGAUR-UPC(2020 FI-B 00028). Agencia de Gestión de Ayudas Universitarias y de Investigación, Generalitat de Catalunya., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

El objetivo del proyecto consiste en el diseño y la implementación de un banco de prueba y diagnóstico de averías electrónicas de un modelo bastante común de ascensor, con el fin de simular su secuencia y emular el funcionamiento de los sistemas que no resulta conveniente instalar en una plataforma móvil. El propósito es proporcionar las condiciones adecuadas para la maniobra del elevador, de manera que pueda ejecutar su movimiento y funcionamiento normal. Para lograr esto, se ha diseñado, implementado, programado y actualmente se encuentra en fase de prueba, todo un conjunto de sistemas electrónicos de bajo coste capaz de generar las señales de salida y gestionar las señales de entrada necesarias. Del mismo modo, esto no sería suficiente para poder diagnosticar fallos y averías, sino que al mismo tiempo debe supervisar el correcto funcionamiento de dichas señales en todo momento. La metodología empleada en el proyecto se basó inicialmente en comprender el funcionamiento de los sistemas propios del ascensor, para posteriormente participar en el diseño de una solución robusta, pero de bajo coste. A continuación, se implementaron una serie de códigos de prueba que permitieran verificar de manera precisa la secuencia de la maniobra. Se han conformado dos interfaces distintas que posibilitan tanto probar el normal uso del ascensor, como la monitorización constante de las señales en cada etapa de la secuencia, con el objetivo de detectar posibles averías. Además, se ha llevado a cabo el diseño e implementación de prototipos de hardware específico para cumplir con los propósitos del proyecto (robustez, bajo coste, flexibilidad e inmunidad para comprobar equipos averiados), incluyendo el montaje del rack móvil que alberga el conjunto electrónico de la maniobra, junto con los elementos y dispositivos utilizados. Los resultados y conclusiones obtenidos en este proyecto validan de manera satisfactoria los objetivos establecidos inicialmente, a pesar de los retos y dificultade

One of the threats to nanometric CMOS analog circuit reliability is circuit performance degradation due to transistor aging. To extend circuit operating life, the bias of the main devices within the circuit must be adjusted while the aging degradation process affects them by using a monitor circuit that tracks the evolution of the circuit performance. In this paper, we propose the use of DC temperature measurements in the proximity of the circuit to perform the monitoring of circuit performance degradation and as an observable variable to adjust the bias of the main devices to restore the degraded performance to the original values. To this end, we present experimental results obtained from nine samples of a standard CMOS integrated circuit containing a high-frequency class-A power amplifier and a differential temperature sensor. After accelerated aging, the gain of the amplifier is degraded up to 50%. We propose two different procedures to perform DC temperature measurements that allow tracking of the amplifier gain degradation due to aging and, by uniquely observing temperature readings, automatically set a new bias for the amplifier devices that restores the original amplifier gain. Whereas one of the procedures is able to restore the gain up to a certain limit, the second allows full gain restoration., This research was funded by Spanish MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, Project PID2019- 103869RB-C33., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)